Blog & News

October 30, 2017

The Impact of AI on Procurement – a Gartner Report

According to a recent report conducted by Gartner, “Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies will add significant value if provided with the right platform, so application leaders in procurement need to drive better adoption of foundational procurement solutions.” Gartner’s conclusion is not new news to us– we have been emphasizing the importance of foundational procurement solutions for a while now. Without the proper implementation of necessary eInvoicing applications and tools, AI, also known as intelligent automation, will not yield the highest returns. Intelligent automation has caused some stir in the industry, but as Gartner confirms, in order to reap the future benefits, you must invest in the foundational solutions first.

Gartner recommends that companies focus on improving the availability and quality of their data to leverage it in AI technologies, and increasing supplier adoption of procurement tools. Accurate, up-to-date and complete data is the key to intelligent automation. The report advises companies “inventory and analyze what sources of procurement data you have, how to access it and what you can do to increase its availability to support AI technologies’ need for data.” Intelligent automation solutions are only able to analyze data and make the appropriate decisions based on your business rules if the data is correct.

The report states, “Before most organizations will get any significant value from AI in procurement, there is a significant issue to address: adoption. [Increasing] adoption of procurement tools across source-to-pay and supplier management processes enables maturing AI capabilities to improve processes, provide actionable advice and increase automation.” In order to ensure the ‘good data’ necessary for intelligent automation, Gartner recommends that companies strive for 100% supplier adoption through a flexible automation tool.

The report identifies poor implementations, inflexibility, and lack of change management strategies as the primary reasons companies do not reach a sufficient level of supplier adoption. Once again this is not new to us; Direct Commerce has been able to consistently achieve over 90% supplier adoption rates because our eInvoicing platforms fit the way companies already work. By creating solutions that can be easily integrated into your current business process, we are able to prove the value of the new solution and create a positive culture through change management. The more tailored your P2P solution is to the industry, specific user roles, and needs, the more likely people are to adopt it.

Emphasizing supplier adoption of P2P solutions isn’t just about compliance. It is about creating good data, making your suppliers happy and helping you prepare for the future of automation. Read Gartner’s full report or Direct Commerce’s blog post to learn more about the impact of intelligent automation of P2P processes.